Speaking and Listening

Source: Pixabay by John Hain (License: CC0/Public Domain)

 

In this activity, students use the Internet to gather information and take notes for a presentation about a civil rights leader. Students work individually or in pairs to enter information and images on a Google Slideshow (or other slideshow software) template file and make an oral presentation.

Source: Pixabay by reneebigelow (License: CC0/Public Domain)

 

Students view an animated video from Upworthy's YouTube channel, answer questions about it, and then write about, design a slideshow or poster, or summarize another video about a random act of kindness.

Source: Pixabay by Jim Jorstad (License: CC0/Public Domain)

Students have conversation about favorite places, learn about a United States national monument by watching a video and answering questions, and then select a place in the U.S. to research and present on.

Source: https://www.wordclouds.com/ (License: Protected by Copyright (c) [i.e. screenshot])

 

Students will create a Personality Poem along with a word cloud which is uploaded to Padlet and commented on by others.

Source: Padlet AI (License: CC0/Public Domain)

 

Students will use descriptive skills to create an AI picture similar to the one the teacher displays.

Source: Unsplash by S'well (License: CC0/Public Domain)

Students choose a destination for a dream vacation, research a destination, transportation, what to do and see there, and lodging, and then create a simple budget. They then present their vacation in a slideshow to the class. 

Source: Pixabay by Sergei Tokmakov (License: CC0/Public Domain)

 

Students engage in conversation about the environment, practice listening comprehension by watching a video and answering questions, read an article about the harm of plastics on the environment, brainstorm ways to preserve the natural environment, write a paragraph, and create an inforgraphic based on their ideas.

Source: Unsplash by Natalie Pedigo (License: CC0/Public Domain)

 

Intermediate and advanced students learn about ancient and modern wonders of the world using the online information on the Google Arts and Culture site and other Web sites and then and share what they learn in a jigsaw reading/cooperative learning activity. As an optional follow-up, write a paragraph and/or make an oral presentation about a wonder of the world of their choosing (a museum, building, sculpture, statue, bridge, canal, dam, temple, church, cathedral, castle, or natural wonder or a UNESCO World Heritage Site) located in their native countries or elsewhere.

Source: Pixabay (License: CC0/Public Domain)

Beginning-level ESL students will complete sentence frames about themselves and will write the sentences on their assigned slide on a shared Google Slideshow with the purpose of breaking the ice and creating community in the first week of class.

Source: Carnegie Corporation Great Immigrants Website by Unknown (License: Protected by Copyright (c) [i.e. screenshot])

 

Students use the Internet to find and read information about a great immigrant from their native countries or other countires. Using the Carnegie Great Immigrants: The Pride of America Web site, they choose an immigrant, read and take notes about them, and prepare an oral presentation, optionally using the PowerPoint or Google Slides template provided.

Source: Pixabay by Gerd Altmann (License: CC0/Public Domain)

Honing their 21st Century Skills of global awareness and teamwork, students work in teams, role-playing international business consultants. Their job is to create a presentation for a group of American business people relocating to another country (students’ native country or a country assigned to them) about business customs and etiquette in that country, especially as they differ from that of the USA.

Source: Pixabay by OpenClipart-Vectors (License: CC0/Public Domain)

 

Students watch videos and take notes to learn idioms, practice the idioms in conversation and on an online discussion forum (optionally), and then create a "quiz" for their classmates OR select a new idiom from the video channel or other sites,  create a presentation to teach the class the idiom(s) by creating a PowerPoint or Google Slideshow presentation, writing and performing a dialog, using Web sites to create digital films or comic strips based on dialogs, making an infographic, or making videos.

Source: https://www.useloom.com/ (License: Protected by Copyright (c) [i.e. screenshot])

 

Loom is a new free Chrome Extension that allows you to quickly record a video message and/or screencast and then share it immediately with students and colleagues. You can embed the video in your Moodle course or on your Website. Loom also integrates well with Google Classroom. You can share your videos via Gmail; and if you send them to another Gmail user, Loom will insert a video player into your email so your video can be played in your email. Videos can also be shared directly on Twitter and Facebook. What stands out about Loom is its ease of use.

Source: YouTube Learn English with Speeches by Learn English with Speeches (License: Protected by Copyright (c) [i.e. screenshot])

 

Use the any of the video sources for student pronunciation practice. There are several speeches by famous people from around the world. Each video has large subtitles so that students can see the words and develop their vocabulary at the same time as practicing pronunciation and oral presentations.

Source: Pixabay by Scott (License: CC0/Public Domain)

 

Students will make oral presentations with visual aides to talk about their hometowns. Students practice present and past passive verb forms by talking about their hometowns or birthplaces (It is called..., It is known for..., etc.). For information that is unknown (such as what is produced there), students can use Web sites such as Wikipedia to find the information.

Source: Pixabay by PublicDomainPictures (License: Creative Commons 1.0)

 

Intermediate and advanced students or students in Citizenship classes learn about national symbols of the United States through jigsaw reading and follow up by writing a paragraph and/or making an oral presentation about national symbols of their native countries (or state/city symbols if the class is relatively homogeneous).

Source: This I Believe: Do What You Love by NPR (License: Protected by Copyright (c) [i.e. screenshot])

 

Use the essays from the NPR Radio program to create speaking/conversation activities, vocabulary learning exercises, listening (main ideas, cloze, details, etc.) activities, and follow up with extension activities in which students speak or write about themselves.

Source: Unsplash by Handiwork NYC (License: Creative Commons 1.0)

 

In this activity, students will use online classified ads to investigate job openings and find housing where they live for someone they know who is hypothetically relocating to their city. Students create a PowerPoint slideshow about the job and salary, the housing and cost, and create a monthly budget.

Source: Pexels by Rene Strgar (License: Creative Commons 4.0)

 

This activity uses prerecorded authentic conversation in which a caller wants to order a pizza. Pre- and post-listening activities are provided along with immediate feedback on comprehension exercises.

This is a good unit on consumerism. The lesson is complete with video, note-taking and practice.

Students watch a video which explains advertising strategies. Then, using a note-taking chart, they will practice identifying advertising strategies while watching various commercials. They can also use the form at home while watching TV commercials for further practice. Then as a final activity, students can make a team presentation using PowerPoint.

Source: Simple Present Image (License: Protected by Copyright (c) [i.e. screenshot])

In this lesson, students will learn ow to pronounce verbs wit the third person singular and use appropriate simple verb in writing, reading, and speaking exercises.

Source: Snopes.com (License: CC0/Public Domain)

 

While learning about urban legends, students practice reading skills, summarizing and paragraphing in speaking and writing, and hone their abilities to view media critically. Students use Snopes, a site dedicated to fact-checking news stories, past events and urban legends, to read and take notes on an urban legends. 

Source: Screenshot of Mote extension (License: Protected by Copyright (c) [i.e. screenshot])

 

Mote is a Chrome Extension that makes it easy for anyone to add voice notes and feedback to documents, assignments, and emails.

Source: Pixabay by congerdesign (License: CC0/Public Domain)

Students describe clothing in a prepared oral presentation and explain how an outfit is appropriate for a particular event or situation.

Source: https://votesmart.org/education/classroom by https://votesmart.org/education/classroom (License: Protected by Copyright (c) [i.e. screenshot])

 

Students learn about the legislative branch of government in this activity. They learn the number of the House and Senate district where they live, the names of the senator and representative who represent their district, the votes of a senator or representative on current issues in the state legislature, and become familiar with the Vote Smart Web Site and how it can be used to obtain information.

Source: https://crfcap.org/mod/page/view.php?id=205 (License: Protected by Copyright (c) [i.e. screenshot])

 

Civic Action Project (CAP) is a project-based learning model for civics and government courses. It offers a practicum for high school students in effective and engaged citizenship and uses blended learning to engage students in civic activities both in and out of the traditional U.S. government classroom. By using Web-based technology and civics-based instruction and activities, students exercise important 21st-century skills in digital literacy, critical thinking, collaboration, self-direction, and learning to be an engaged and effective citizen in a democracy.

Students also see how the content of a government course can apply to the real world. By taking civic actions, they practice what real citizens do when they go about trying to solve a real policy-related problem. CAP fulfills best practices in service learning with an emphasis on public policy.